The Romantic Period

1825 - 1910

Copyright © 2005 - Frankel Consulting Services, Inc.

What was happening in the world
during this period?
1825 - Erie Canal opens
1838 - Invention of photography
1846 - Neptune discovered
1859 - Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of the
Species
1861-1865 - American Civil War
1869 - Transcontinental Railroad completed
1872 - Brooklyn Bridge opens
1876 - Telephone invented
1877 - Phonograph invented
1886 - Statue of Liberty presented to New York
1893 - Henry Ford builds first car
1903 - Wright Brothers first airplane flight at
Kitty Hawk, NC
1905 - E=mc2 - Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
 Famous People from the Era
Charles Darwin Karl Marx
Albert Einstein Jack the Ripper
Sigmund Freud Walt Whitman
Abraham Lincoln Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mark Twain Henry David Thoreau
Alexander Graham Bell Edgar Allen Poe
Henry Ford Emily Dickinson
Booker T. Washington Cezanne, Manet, Van Gogh
 Famous Artists
Paul Cezanne
Edouard Manet
Edgar Degas
Claude Monet
Vincent van Gogh
Edvard Munch
Georges Seurat
What does the term Romantic mean?

The Romantic movement in music coincides with a

general Romantic movement in all arts. At this period,
the arts of literature and painting began to influence
music. In the Romantic era, music acquired poetic or
philosophical meaning. Antiquity, folklore, history
and exotic cultures were examined as possible sources
of inspiration.
 Characteristics of the
Romantic Period
Music is not as reliant on repetition as in
Classical music
The music often directly tells a story
Exploration of tone colors
Much bigger orchestras
Sturm und Drang
Popularity of chamber music
Music is highly emotional
 Musical Innovations
Invention of the song cycle
Invention of the symphonic poem
Great works written for solo piano
Composers stretched the listeners ear by creating a
great deal of dissonance using chromatic notes,
and extensions of the triad.
Composers began to drift away from the strong
sense of tonality heard in Classical music.
 Famous Romantic Composers
Frederic Chopin
Franz Liszt
Hector Berlioz
Johannes Brahms
Modest Mussorgsky
Felix Mendelssohn
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Richard Wagner
Frederic Chopin

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Franz Liszt

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Hector Berlioz

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Johannes Brahms

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Modest Mussorgsky

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Felix Mendelssohn

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Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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Richard Wagner

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 Period Instruments
Tuba
Alto, Bass, Contrabass Clarinet
Contrabassoon
Euphonium
Alto, Tenor, Baritone Saxophone
Alto Flute